Coconut Toffee with White Chocolate Chip Cookies

On the first day of summer, all I wanted to do was BAKE BAKE BAKE! Surprisingly, the sun was out and about, but I didn't have anywhere to go. I actually started off trying to make french macarons, but it was an epic fail. I've never baked something where it didn't turn out, so I was pretty disappointed. The batter came out too runny, it never got its "feet" and when I baked it, it got mutant feet and spread into each other.

I whipped up some of these cookies just to try and I am now planning to bring them to Bunco night on post. They turned out pretty sweet. I added way more coconut than the recipe intended, but I think I would like to toast them next time and add less toffee chips (I kind of added the whole bag).



Coconut Toffee with White Chocolate Chip Cookies
original recipe from lick the bowl good

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pkg toffee bits
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter and both sugars together, then add egg and vanilla, stir.

Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt just til combined. Stir in toffee bits, white chocolate and coconut.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool for a couple minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Granny Smith Apple Crumble

Awhile back, my friend Ana asked my friend Noel and I to go on a 10 day sugar detox. In the end, Ana backed out since she just had a baby, is breastfeeding and was hesitant on it. With that said, Noel and I went forward with the detox and let me just say, it was not fun. At all. We had salami and cheese parties, drank lots of water and cried about not being to eat fruit. The only fruit allowed was granny smith apples, green tipped bananas and grapefruit, but only one serving per day. I am a huge snacker, so not allowing to snack was a tough one. I had an apple left and looked through the 21 day sugar detox book for a dessert recipe. The recipe itself was extremely easy, but I wasn't a huge fan of it, but since I was on a detox, it helped curbed my sweet tooth for a bit. If you like tart, this apple crumble is for you!



Granny Smith Apple Crumble
recipe from 21 day sugar detox

Filling:

4 green apples, peeled and thinly sliced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Topping:

1 1/4 cups almond meal
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
1 TBsp unsalted butter, melted, for the pan

Preheat oven to 350F

Make the filling: In a mixing bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and cinnamon.

Make the topping: Mix together the almond meal, butter, cinnamon and salt until completely incorporated.

Brush bottom and sides of a 9x9 dish with the melted butter.

Place the apples in the baking dish and cover evenly with the topping.

Bake for 20 minutes covered with foil, then an additional 25-30 minutes uncovered.

White Chocolate Fruit Tarts

The first time I had these fruit tarts was at my friend Jeannie's engagement party and I'm not going to lie, I ate a good handful of them (she made mini fruit tarts). She came up to the PNW the end up April and we made these before she left. The recipe is extremely easy and you can make these in smaller tart pans, a large tart pan (bake crust longer) or bake crusts in cupcake tins or even mini cupcake tins for bite size tarts. Use whatever fruit you desire, but I highly recommend putting the fruits on the day you plan to serve.



White Chocolate Fruit Tart

Crust:
1 1/2 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup powder sugar
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:
10oz bag of white chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
8oz package of cream cheese

Topping:
Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries

Preheat oven to 300F.

Cream butter with powder sugar until fluffy, then add in the flour. Mix until fully incorporated. Flatten dough into either a large tart pan or 6 medium sized tart pan. Bake 25-30 minutes until edges are golden brown. Do not over bake. Cool on rack before filling.

While the tart crusts are baking, melt your white chocolate chips using the double broiler method. Mix cream cheese and whipping cream together. Add in melted white chocolate chips and mix until incorporated.

Spread filling onto tart crust and top with your favorite berries.

Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

Happy Easter everyone! We usually do not celebrate Easter and the dogs wouldn't be keen in looking for Easter eggs. Since my husband is currently deployed, I decided to crash my friend Ana's Easter instead. We're not doing the usual Easter dinner with ham and the works. Instead, my friend Noel jokingly requested for a nacho bar buffet. Noel is making deviled eggs and I've settled for dessert as usual. Cookies didn't seem fitting, but after talking to Noel, we've decided cheesecake would be fitting.

I've only made cheesecake twice in my life, but thankfully this was an easy recipe and it turned out delicious! I'm not a fan of graham cracker crust, so I switched it to buttery shortbread and it's even better!



Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
recipe from the bake chick

For the Crust:

1 1/2 cups shortbread cookies
4T butter

For the Cheesecake:

16 ounces cream cheese- room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest of a lemon
4 tablespoons milk
2 eggs- room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Raspberry Swirl:

4 oz. of fresh raspberries (about 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

For the crust:

In a medium sized bowl mix together the crumbs and butter with a spoon until moist. Press into the prepared pan and bake for about 10 minutes or until crust is set around the edges.

Make the filling:

Beat together the white sugar, and cream cheese until smooth.
Add the egg, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy. Spread filling mixture over baked crust.

For the Raspberry Purée:

In a food processor or blender, purée the raspberries until smooth. Press through a fine mesh sieve, getting as much liquid out as possible. Discard the solids. Stir in the sugar.

Dot the raspberry mixture over the filling and use a toothpick or skewer to swirl together.

Bake for 30 minutes or until set around the edges and slightly jiggly in the center. Cool completely on a wire rack and then chill until cold before serving.

Filipino Coconut Cassava Cake

It's been an incredibly busy month with us celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary, my friend's friend Esther came to town, Hubby came back from his training, we're getting ready for another deployment and my MIL (Mother-in-Law) is in town. While my MIL has been here, she's made us some pancit and my favorite, her lumpias. Today, I'm sharing with you one of my favorite Filipino desserts, Cassave Cake.

Cassava roots are very rich in starch and tapioca is a starch found in the roots of the plant. You can read more about it on wikipedia.



Filipino Coconut Cassava Cake
recipe from my MIL, Evelyn

2 16oz defrosted shredded cassava (check the frozen section of your Asian market)
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2-1 cup granulated sugar
1-2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, optional

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix everything together with a whisk until well blended.

Pour into a greased 13x9 glass pan.

Bake for 30 minutes and add remaining condensed milk on top. Bake an extra 5 minutes.

Twix Cookie Bar

I went to my first ever Super Bowl Sunday this past weekend at my friend Ana's and I was asked to bring a dessert. I decided to bring a fruit platter with marshmallow fluff dip and a side of cookie butter, but I also wanted to bring something chocolatey.

I was instantly hooked to a dozen recipes while browsing Bakers Royale and decided that since I was short on time, I would go with twix cookie dough cheesecake bars. I loved that the recipe used pre-made ingredients for those that are short on time (like I was) but I'm sure it would taste even better if you used homemade cookie dough with homemade caramel.

The Twix cookie bar turned out really sweet, but oh so good. Great with a glass of milk. Even though I was filled to the brim with Ana's delicious homemade nacho bar and grazing at the fruit and veggie tray all through the game, I was able to stuff a small piece of it. I literally could not move for hours after that!

Highly recommend making these or pretty much anything on Bakers Royale's page. Her desserts do not disappoint!



Twix Cookie Bars
recipe from bakers royale

Crust and topping

one 16-oz. package of ready-made chocolate cookie dough
one 16-oz. pacakage of ready-made chocolate chip cookie dough
5 Twix, king size packages or 8 regular packages

Cheesecake layer

8oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup caramel sauce (I used the one from Trader Joe's)
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (for topping)

Create a sling by lining the pan with foil so that there is a one inch overhang on each side. Cover foil with bake spray.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cookie Crust:

Flatten chocolate fudge cookie dough to a 1/4 inch thickness using a rolling pin. Pinch off chocolate chip cookie dough into pieces and then drop it on top of fudge cookie dough. Using a rolling pin roll chocolate chip cookie dough into chocolate fudge cookie dough; set aside.

Cheesecake:

Add cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla and caramel sauce into a bowl and beat until blended. Set aside.

Assembly: Cover the bottom of the pan with a little more than three-quarters of flatten dough. Set aside remaining dough to sprinkle on top. Place Twix bars side-by-side directly on top of crust.

Pour cheesecake mixture on top. Crumble remaining cookie dough and sprinkle on top of cheesecake layer along with remaining 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips all over top.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees F. Remove from oven set on wire rack to cool.

Holiday Baking: Peppermint Mocha Cookies

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday! I've been so off my game this year and since I wasn't planning to ship any cookie gifts to my family and friends, I didn't bake anything special until the other night. I had picked up Andes peppermint crunch baking chips earlier this year and have been dying to use it since. With the holiday drinks out in full force, I wanted to make a Starbucks inspired peppermint mocha cookie and was lucky to discover Tracey's blog!

My butter didn't come to complete room temperature, so my dough ended up being a little crumbly. I recommend putting the dough in the fridge for a good 30 minutes before scooping and dip the top of the dough in a plate filled with the peppermint baking chips before baking.



Peppermint Mocha Cookies
recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups peppermint baking chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Jumbo marshmallows, cut in half (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee granules, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together. Cream the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and egg yolk, and then the vanilla and peppermint extracts. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients, beating just until combined. Mix in the peppermint baking chips and chocolate chips.

Bake for 8 minutes and add half of the marshmallow. Bake an extra 3 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are set (don't overbake!). Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let the cookies cool for a few minutes then remove the cookies to the wire rack to cool completely.

Trail Mix Cookies

LA was an amazing trip and kinda sad it has ended, but also so glad to have returned home. Aside from cooking some meals for my brother, cookies has been requested, especially a batch of S'more Cookies. I was home to actually surprise my Mom for her birthday and even though I was the actual present, my Mom could never turn down some cookies. My Mom doesn't like milk or dark chocolate, let alone white chocolate, but thought these trail mix cookies were a "healthier" choice. The boys exclaimed how delicious they were and with my brother's palate, his opinion is definitely important and he never lies to me.



Trail Mix Cookies
original recipe from country cleaver

2 cups Flour
¾ tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
1 cup Brown Sugar
½ cup Sugar
10 Tbsp Butter, cubed
2 Eggs
1 Tbsp Vanilla
1 cup Oats
1 cup White Chocolate Chips
½ cup chopped Almonds
½ cup Dried Cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oven racks on middle top and middle bottom racks. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and oats. Set aside. In a stand mixer combine brown and white sugars. On medium low speed, add in butter and cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds in between. Add in vanilla extract. Slowly add in flour/oats mixture until just combined. Add in white chocolate chips, pecans and dried berries. Mix until just incorporated.

Place in fridge to chill for 20 minutes.

Scoop out ¼ cup of dough and roll into a ball. Lightly press into the cookie sheet until 1" thick. Add about 8 cookies per sheet.

Place cookies in oven and bake about 10 minutes. Rotate and switch cookie sheets onto opposite oven racks and bake an additional 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack until cool.

"Cowboy" Compost Cookies

I was invited to attend a recipe swap and I had the hardest time coming up with a recipe to share. In all honesty, I was too darn lazy to run out to the grocery store. So, I looked over my recipes over and over again picking this and that, but I don't know too much about my new friends and what their palate is, so the safest thing is cookies. Normally I would of gone with my ever so popular s'more cookies, but instead I went to cowboy cookies which I posted about last August. After mixing up the dry ingredients, I even second guessed myself if this was the right recipe to share. I almost made S'more cookies, but you know what, it was 2AM and nobody got time to start all over.



The cookie was chewy from the oatmeal, not too sweet from the chocolate chips and a hint of saltiness from the potato chips. All a great combo. While waiting for the cookies to bake, my house literally smelled like movie theater popcorn *drool*

No recipe to be shared today, but you can find the cowboy cookie recipe here and substitute potato chips for pretzels.

Toffee Cakey Brownie with Marshmallow

I have been thinking about cake for the past week. No joke. It was seriously troubling, but instead I ended up making these brownies. Another lazy day in the kitchen, so I used boxed mix. I added in some leftover toffee bits as well as sprinkling some on top the last 5 minutes. Topped off with some marshmallow that needed to be used up as well. Result? Absolutely deliciouuuus! I think next time, I would bake it just a little longer to toast up the marshmallows more.

No recipe included, but it's just a boxed brownie mix. Follow the package instructions, mix in some toffee bits. At the last 5-10 minutes, sprinkle more toffee bits and marshmallows.

Banana Cream Poke Cake

Have you seen this pin on Pinterest? So did I and I got pinspired and bought all the ingredients and then I got lazy... til today. Woke up, the sun was shining and bright (it's was 50F!) and quickly made the cake batter to pop into the oven while I let the dogs out.

I haven't ate too many pies in my lifetime, but aside from apple pie, banana cream always stuck out in my mind. I use to loooove the taste of banana or banana flavored things, which once in awhile I still do, but I rarely eat bananas now. Winter started pretty early here and I am definitely craving for a taste of spring! I'm thankful that today gave me a dose of what spring will be like and top it off with this dessert? OHHH YEEEA.

Isn't Easter at the end of this month too? This would surely make a great dessert to serve! I would even make these into cupcakes and definitely let the pudding set just a little before pouring over the cake. I... Well, I got too impatient and added the cool whip too soon. Not only was it not fully thawed, it created a huge mess just trying to spread it. Also, I could only find one package of banana pudding at my local Safeway. Who knew banana pudding was so in demand right now?! Neither did I.



Banana Cream Poke Cake
Original recipe from the country cook

1 10 oz. box yellow cake mix, follow instructions on the back of package
1 package instant banana pudding
3 cups milk
1 tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
15-20 vanilla wafers, crushed

Prepare the cake according to package directions.
Let it to cool and poke holes all the way through the cake (I used a chopstick since that's all I had).
Whisk banana pudding into milk and let sit for a minute.
Spread over cake and make sure to push pudding into the holes.
Place cake into fridge so pudding can set.
Spread thawed cool whip and top with crushed nilla wafers.

Keep refrigerated.

Holiday Baking: White Chocolate with Pistachios and Cranberry Cookies

Today I'm sharing with you my last holiday baking recipe that was sent out to my closest family and friends. I honestly can't tell you how these taste since I baked and packaged, but hopefully Melissa will leave a comment and let me know how it is taste wise. The original recipe calls for rolled oats, but I omitted that and added pistachios instead. Let me tell you, if you can, buy the deshelled ones... It will literally make your life so much easier! I used what I had on hand and it was not fun whatsoever standing there for a good 10 minutes.

White Chocolate with Pistachio and Cranberry Cookies
Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2-1 cup pistachios

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the white chocolate chips, pistachio and the dried cranberries.

4. Drop dough onto baking sheet. Bake until cookies turn slightly golden about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cool.

Holiday Baking: Confetti Cake Batter Cookies

Simple recipes with minimal ingredients makes holiday baking stress free and I will take all the help I need. These are seriously so simple to make and you can also make the dough, scoop out into balls and freeze ahead of time. I'm not a fan of cake batter flavor anything (except candles), but these cookies turned out super moist and really good!

P.S. Sorry for the poor quality of photos... gloomy skies make ugly photos :(



Confetti Cake Batter Cookies
Recipe from Sallys Baking Addiction

1 box (18.25 oz) vanilla/white cake mix
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350F. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together everything but the sprinkles. Gently fold in the sprinkles.

Drop rounded 1-inch balls of dough onto baking sheet. You can also roll the top of the cookie dough in more sprinkles.

Bake for 9 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Holiday Baking: Chewy Nutella Cookies

It's already December 5th and I've been searching and testing a couple recipes for a good couple weeks now and I am so glad I tried this recipe from Buttercream Blondie because it is so so so good! The last recipe I tried from her site was a bit of a fail on my end, but these cookies are far from that! If you like a nice chewy cookie, this is it! Next time I'm going to add more Nutella... I'm not even sure I added 3/4 cup since I didn't measure and only added what I had left.

Chewy Nutella Cookies
recipe from buttercream blondie

8 ounces unsalted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup nutella
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 & 1/2 cups AP flour

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add nutella and continue to mix.
Add eggs and extract, mixing till combined.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours or over night.
Scoop dough using a 1 ounce cookie scoop.
Bake at 325 degrees for approx. 15-16 minutes rotating once halfway through.

Holiday Baking: Chai Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies

Been testing out some recipes for this years cookie gram to my family and close friends and I personally love Chai anything and everything. Plus, I was stuck with 2 bags of the Pumpkin Spice Kisses and I desperately needed to get rid of them.... not to mention, I'm still stuck with a bag of them!

I ended up chopping up the kisses and mixed it in the dough since my last thumbprint recipe was a disaster which I had to turn them into a cookie bar. Thankfully these cookies turned out really good! Very cake-like, moist and delicious. The chai flavor wasn't as strong as I hoped for and the original recipe only called to sprinkle the chai spice on top, which I ended up adding it into the dough. I recommend putting in less cinnamon, more cardamon and maybe add in more chai concentrate.



Chai Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies
Original recipe from Pass the Sushi

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup chai concentrate (I used the brand Oregon Chai)
1 large egg
1 teas vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teas baking soda
1/8 teas salt
1/2 teas chai spice mix (recipe below)
10-12 pumpkin spice kisses, chopped, optional
OR 22-24 Pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses to top on cookie

Chai Spice Mix:
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer and cream at medium speed until fluffy, or with a hand mixer, for about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg, chai concentrate, and the vanilla, mix until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, chai spice mix and salt, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as necessary. Mix in the chopped kisses.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Using your hands, roll the dough into 22 to 24 1 inch round balls. Place the dough balls on parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile, unwrap kisses.

Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately place pumpkin kisses in the center of each cookie. Don’t touch or the kisses will turn into puddles! Cool completely.

Oreo Cupcakes Take 2!

Since I deleted my old blog where this recipe was posted at, I thought I would add it here. I posted about oreo cupcakes awhile back, but these are made using homemade batter instead of cake mix. The original recipe is from Annie's Eats and the only thing i changed was by adding oreo crumbs to the frosting.

I mean, everyone loves Oreos right? This cupcake is oreo half (cream side) on the bottom, oreo chunks in the batter, oreo crumbs in the frosting and sprinkled on top and lastly, an Oreo half to top it all off. Can we say Oreo Coma?! On the plus side, this cupcake is not painstakingly sweet like I initially thought it would be. These will make your life complete.



Oreo Cupcakes
Original recipe from Annie's Eats

For the cupcakes:
24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
8 TBsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, broken into quarters

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla bean paste
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2-3 tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 cup Oreo crumbs (optional)

For garnish:
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners. Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the chopped Oreos until evenly incorporated.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Blend in the vanilla extract. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in oreo crumbs.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired. Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

Spiced Pumpkin Kiss Cookies

It's that time of the year to start thinking about holiday baking whether you already have a set list of goodies you bake year after year or if you're like me, you like to test out new recipes. A couple years ago, I did send out candy cane kiss cookies, eggnog shortbread, chocolate covered gummi bears and chocolate bark. This year... I'm still thinking whether I want to send out goodies or not, but I do have a couple recipes set aside and these spiced pumpkin kiss cookies from Buttercream Blondie were one of them.

When stores started stocking shelves with Halloween candy, for the life of me, I couldn't find these pumpkin kisses which everyone on twitter and instagram was boasting about, but when I eventually did, like a crazy person I bought 3 bags!! I actually do not like them. I have no clue what I'm going to do with them, but I saw this recipe and figured I'd give it a go. First off, I don't drink. Maybe once year? Or every other year? Obviously I don't own Bourbon so I omitted that, but I'm sure if you added it, it would of tasted a lot better. Sadly to say, this cookie will not be appearing in this years Christmas box. It was a little bland... probably from omitting the Bourbon? I'm not sure, but I wish the cookie itself had more spice because adding the kiss itself doesn't make the cookie that much better. Oh well, I ended up freezing the rest of the dough and will bake them when my mom is here. I know she'll gobble them up :)



Spiced Pumpkin Kiss Cookies
recipe from buttercream blondie

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon Bourbon
1/2 cup mascarpone
2 & 3/4 cup AP flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag Hershey's Pumpkin Kisses

Cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy.
Add egg, extract and bourbon.
Mix in mascarpone.
Sift dries together & mix in till combined.
Scoop cookies using a half ounce cookie scoop and roll.
Chill cookies for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Bake at 325 degrees for 12-13 minutes rotating halfway through. While they're baking, unwrap the kisses.
As soon as you remove cookies from oven, place them on a cooling rack and press a pumpkin kiss into the center of each one.

Martha's Buttery Pecan Rounds

The recipe is super simple and you could easily double or even triple the recipe to your liking. They're really light and flaky and just melts in your mouth, literally. I'm going to definitely add these to my holiday bake list :)



Buttery Pecan Rounds
Recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies

1 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp coarse salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg yolk (I accidently added the whole egg instead)
2/3 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
pecan halves, for decorating

Preheat oven to 325F. Sift together flour and salt into a bowl.
Cream butter and brown sugar til smooth, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg yolk until combined. Add flour mixture, mix until combined. Mix in chopped pecans.
Drop batter onto parchment lined baking sheets, spacing about 3 inches apart. Press one pecan half into the center of each. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Butterscotch-Cashew Blondies

I was flipping through my Martha Stewart's Cookies book and decided to try and make Blondies. Before discovering the whole food blog world, I have never heard of a Blondie, let alone tried one. I've always been pretty curious and tonight seemed like a nice night to try something new. My mom doesn't eat Chocolate, which I was craving, so these Blondies are perfect for her! It has cashews (nuts in general for her is a plus) and butterscotch chips and the original recipe called for Toffee bits, but i didn't want to shell out $3.50 for a bag, if the recipe calls for only 1/4 cup. I think next time i want to use White Chocolate Chips and maybe Peanuts instead of Cashews. The texture was cake-like, moist and pretty good, but i felt like it was missing something. With this craving, its most likely chocolate :)



Buttescotch-Cashew Blondies
recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies

9 TBsp unsalted butter, room temp, plus more for pan
1 2/3 AP Flour (I use unbleached)
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp coarse salt
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup usalted cashews, coarsely chopped (i used lightly salted cashews)
1/4 cup toffee bits (didn't have any)

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter pan and line with parchment paper.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until combined. Add flour mixture, scraping down the sides. Mix in butterscotch, cashews and toffee.

Pour batter into pan; spread evenly with spatula. Bake 42-45 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes. Lift out; let it cool completely on wire rack before cutting into squares.

Butter Sandwich Cookies

The dough was perrrrfect and rolling it out was pretty easy. I used one of those linzer cutters since i wanted it to be pretty and whatnot. Overall, it was awesome!! The cookie had a nice crunch when i bit into it and the cream cheese filling was tangy (not necessarily in a bad spoiled way) and of course my jam/jelly/fruit preserve was delicious!! Speaking of the jam/jelly/fruit preserve i used, I have no clue what is it. My friend brought it back for me from Germany when she was visiting her boyfriend and his family. Its completely homemade from Patrick's mom's kitchen and i wish there was more!!



Butter Sandwich Cookies
recipe from The Cookie Calendar 2010

for the cookies:
2 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

for the filling:
2/3 powdered sugar (or confectioner's sugar), sifted
3oz. cream cheese
4 TBsp fruit preserves
extra powdered sugar, to decorate

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat the butter less 2 TBsps, the sugar and the vanilla until creamy but not fluffy. Beat in the egg. Add salt and flour and mix to a smooth paste. Shape the dough into a flat round, wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins, or until firm.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface 1/8in. thick, and cut out rounds. Place rounds on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

For the filling, beat the remaining butter and powdered sugar until the mixture is pale and soft (that totally did not work for me). Stir in the cream cheese. Spread half the cookies with preserves and the other half with cream cheese icing. Sandwich together and dust with powdered sugar.